A sweeping new report by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) delivers a stark verdict: over the past four years, the Taliban have systematically stripped Afghan women and girls of nearly all hard‑won freedoms and protections. This final report, SIGAR’s 68th, concludes the oversight body’s long mission and paints a damning portrait of repression under Taliban rule.
The report evaluates multiple aspects of Afghanistan’s recovery and decline—focusing on U.S. aid delivery, counter‑narcotics efforts, security, economic conditions, and, crucially, the status of women and girls. SIGAR documents an environment in which nearly every facet of female public life has been dismantled. The agency found consistent stripped rights of Afghan Women across education, employment, travel, and personal autonomy throughout Taliban governance.
SIGAR further highlights a dramatic cut in U.S. humanitarian aid—about $342 million allocated in fiscal year 2025, a steep reduction from over $968 million in 2023. The shrinking aid coincides with intensifying restrictions on women’s lives, deepening the humanitarian crisis facing Afghan society, especially women who previously relied on educational or economic support systems now dismantled by Taliban decrees.
Analysts quoted within the report emphasize that international institutions have so far drawn attention to abuses without offering meaningful remedies. Political affairs analyst Abdul Sadeq Hamidzoy notes: international bodies have reported concerns but “have taken no concrete action to resolve them”. Another expert, Idris Mohammadi Zazai, questions the efficacy of SIGAR’s oversight in rooting out corruption and ensuring aid reached its intended recipients over nearly two decades of U.S. involvement.
Beyond the U.S. report, ample evidence from other sources corroborates the deteriorating and stripped rights of Afghan Women. Under Taliban authority, girls have been banned from secondary and higher education—making Afghanistan the only country globally to enforce such a prohibition. Women are also barred from most sectors of employment, prohibited from public spaces including parks and gyms, and restricted from traveling without a male guardian or mahram. Face coverings are mandatory, and deviations from dress codes have led to arrests, harassment, and even public floggings.
According to the United Nations and human rights groups, these policies amount to “gender apartheid,” institutionalizing the exclusion of women from visibility, mobility, and autonomy. The Taliban have imposed hundreds of edicts targeting women’s behavior and spaces, including bans on women working for NGOs—including the UN—and participating in public life.
Further underscoring systemic oppression, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in mid‑2025 against Taliban leadership—including supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani—on charges of crimes against humanity for the regime’s “persecution of women and girls,” which includes denying their rights to education, movement, and employment, and subjecting them to sexual violence, torture, and arbitrary imprisonment.
Current reports from the UN document routine arrests of women in Kabul during mid‑July 2025 for alleged violations of rigid hijab rules. Officials described a growing pattern of detention and intimidation using force or surveillance to enforce compliance with Taliban dress codes.
Despite international condemnation, including appeals from global human rights organizations, there is little evidence of Taliban policy changes. The regime continues to defend its restrictions as “Islamic” and culturally rooted, but these justifications have done little to alleviate mounting pressure from Afghan women and international advocates alike.
In sum, SIGAR’s final report reaffirms a grim reality: Afghan women and girls have lost nearly all of their civil, educational, and economic rights under Taliban rule. With shrinking humanitarian support and international oversight mechanisms dismantled, the future looks increasingly bleak for half of Afghanistan’s population.
